Wow, people are weird. My 'summer' car is a new Corvette. It's a great car, although it can really kinda suck in Chicago traffic sometimes.
Anyway, on the drive home yesterday, I was toodling along in the right lane in traffic, when an Audi TT comes screaming up behind me and just before hitting me, swings into the left lane. “What an idiot” methinks. I assume the driver wasn't paying attention, and that's why he nearly hit me.
Well, no such luck. A few blocks down, we come to a red light, and he's in the left lane, and I'm in the right lane and we end up stopped next to each other. I'm ignoring him, fiddling with the radio when I hear “... smoking Corvettes!”...
Me: “Huh?”
Him: “I love smoking those new Corvettes!”
Me: “Smoking them?”
Him: “Yeah, beating them in races”
Me: (thinking - has he stuffed a big motor in that thing) “Really?”
Him: “Yup! Got a 3.2 liter Quattro. Nothing can beat me!”
Me: “Uh, you think you can beat a new Corvette?”
Him: “Got 390 horsepower in this thing!”
Me: (thinking - huh, I wonder if Audi has done some magic here)
Him: “Let's do it”
Me: “Do what?”
Him: (racing his engine - sounds like gerbils pedalling furiously) “Race, right now!”
Me: (looking at the bumper of the car in front of me) “Here? What, you want me to ram the car in front of me? (laughing)”
Him: laughs
Light changes, we drive away in traffic, he turns left a block later down some street. Now, there are some weird / bad things here:
First, he wasn't a young kid. He was probably my age (late 30s). WTF is he thinking wanting to race on the street?
Second, I'm not sure he was all there - even if I would race him, it sure as heck wouldn't happen when we're behind 7 cars at a light.
Third, I don't race people (he of course has no way of knowing that). I find that when I'm driving the 'vette, I feel that generally I have very little to prove. Technically, the car is one of the fastest on the street, and even if you put two roughly equal sports cars against each other, it comes down to whoever gets the better start. If my car can do 0-60 in 4.1 seconds, and yours can do it in 4.5 (or whatever), either one of us could win - not that I'd race you, y'all remember back to the future, right? :)
Fourth, I should point out it was a beautiful day, sunny and 80 degrees. Perfect weather for a high power car like the 'vette to actually get the power onto the ground. If it's wet out, or the temp is below about 50, traction is a real problem. If it were a bad weather day, he'd have a chance - Quattro is wonderful for putting the power down (of course, it actually hurts performance as you have a lot more mass in the drive train getting powered by the engine compared to a 2 wheel drive car).
Finally, the fastest Audi TT I could find in my online research is the 3.2 liter TT. 0-60 times of roughly 6 seconds. Not even in the same league. I wonder if it has something to do with TT drivers? I had a friend at an old company I used to work for. I had a 2000 Corvette, he had a TT (don't remember what engine it had). He was constantly bragging about how fast his car was, and how it would beat the 'vette. One day, he and I were out to lunch and he drove my car. About 5 minutes into it he said something like “I will never even joke about my car being able to beat this monster.“ That was in the C5 Corvette. 50 fewer horsepower.
Anyway, I have to get back to doing what I do, but I just thought I'd let everyone in the Chicagoland know that they should watch out for the Corvette beating Audi TT. <booming voice>YOU COULD BE NEXT!</booming voice>.